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Is billionaire yogi Baba Ramdev India’s answer to Donald Trump?

He has a multibillion-dollar business empire. He believes in putting his country first. He may even run for prime minister. Robert F Worth meets Baba Ramdev

Baba Ramdev, 52, practising yoga in HaridwarBharat Sikka

The Times, August 18 2018, 12:01am

On a hazy day in February, some of the most powerful men in India gathered at Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi, an arena famous for its wrestling bouts. The men had come for a different kind of spectacle – a biographical film epic, whose initial episodes (out of 57 in total) would be shown for the first time that evening. At the centre of a makeshift stage, surrounded by politicians and cabinet members, was the person whose life was being celebrated: a slender figure in saffron robes with a long, dark beard, his chest-length hair tied in a bun. He needed no introduction. This was Baba Ramdev, one of the most famous men in India.

Ramdev took the microphone and introduced the several hundred Hindu religious…

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